Thank you so much aries61 for posting the link. I just replied to the post with the finished kitchen. I loved it so much. My kitchen is very similar but instead of an L shape , I have a Jshape in a 14 X 10 feet kitchen. I would love something like this for my kitchen. I really like how the door has a shaker look but with an added pizzazz (I had to look up the spelling of Pizzazz as it did not seem right and I was told it could be spelled pizazz, pizzazz, or pizzaz... amazing that I always use this work in sentences but never looked up the spelling). Thank you for sharing the link.

Laquers, CV's, pre cat's., any solvent based materials are never brushed. They all contain hot solvents that flash off in seconds. You wouldn't even get halfway down the door with the first brush stroke before it would dry. It wouldn't be pretty. They do make a brushable lacquer but this is hardly ever used and no reason to. If you're going to hand brush something you would use a different type of paint. The thing is I could tell you what I think or what I would use but it comes down to what your painter is comfortable and experienced with. Regular lacquer is not good in a wet environment. It will lift if exposed to water for any length of time. Pre-cat. is not bad but personally I would use conversion varnish because it's harder, practically water-proof and essentially the same process as using the pre-catalyzed lacquer. This is the finished used by all major cabinet brands. One reason someone might be reluctant to use it is pre-cat. is shot right out of the can as is where as CV you add a catalyst and it's only good for about 6 hours (pot life) so if you don't clean your equipment well you're in a lot of sh%#t. This is why it's a harder finish. You'll find out just how hard if you get lazy and let it sit in your gun overnight. Nothing breaks it down. You asked about the smell. Everything except water-based is going to smell. If you have asthma you don't what to be anywhere near the others when they're being sprayed. The smell pretty much dissipates overnight. Depending on atmospheric conditions it may linger slightly for another day or two. The majority of the spraying (the doors) should be done in the shop anyway. John P.S. I wish I could just paint our cabinets for you so I don't have to keep writing these long answers. It's not that I mind it's just I don't type that fast or spell that well.

We have a KD and I am so thankful for her. In fact, I found her here on Gardenweb! My DH and I had spent probably 70+ hours on the layout and it was quite good if I do say so myself, but she made it a ton better. She came up with ideas I never would have envisioned, no matter how many books I read on the subject (and there were a lot) or places I would visit. She made it more functional and prettier, and anticipated potential problems that neither DH and I nor our architect saw coming. We pay her by the hour, she is not associated with a cabinet company, and just gives us really good advice. We already knew what we were going to do with the general finishes (white shaker inset cabs, blue Cornufe, lots of drawers, Shaw's sink, soapstone counters, Thermador column refrigerator and freezer, etc.) That hasn't changed and it isn't the part we wanted help with. It's the function and form that we wanted to get just right, and I think that she has done that. That being said, I honestly think we would have had a very nice kitchen on our own, it's just going to be a lot better because of her. Also, we talked to MANY other designers and even worked with a designer on the kitchen for a couple of hours before we found our current one, and none were very helpful. You have to find the one that works for you. And if you don't, you may well be better off not using one at all!

I'm all for taking cabinets to the ceiling! As many other people mentioned, the other option is to have a dust-collecting empty space at the top of your kitchen. The only negative about cabinets-to-the-ceiling hasn't been mentioned yet: It's more expensive. One off-topic note: I've decided to use mirrors instead of glass fronts. That far "up top", no one will really be able to tell the difference anyway, and a mirror will be cheaper. Why? Because when you go with glass, the cabinet maker has to finish the INSIDE of the cabinet to the same quality as the outside ... and it vastly increases the amount of cabinet surface -- it's actually more square footage than the outside of the cabinet. And, by the way, I'm a tad shorter than you, so I can totally relate to being unable to reach anything above the second shelf. Just because it isn't fingertip convenient doesn't mean it isn't useful storage!